The exchange provided a moment of brevity in the midst of nearly three hours of D'Amato's testimony, all but about a half-hour of which came during Sherman's cross-examination.

Under questioning from prosecutor
Dave Shannon
, D'Amato -- who is serving a 3- to 10-year prison sentence on a third-degree burglary charge -- said earlier that Gojcaj approached him in February, while the two were imprisoned at the
Westchester County Correctional Facility
, for some legal advice.

"He came by my cell and told me he heard I knew a lot about the law," D'Amato said. "He wanted to know what the statute of limitations is on homicide."

D'Amato said he was curious about why Gojcaj would want to know something like that, so he asked him.

"He had told me that he had shot and killed his uncle," D'Amato said, and that he cut the body of his uncle,
Zef Vulevic
, into pieces and took them to Bedford, N.Y., for disposal.

After his brief testimony to Shannon, D'Amato spent nearly two hours responding to Sherman's questions, which ranged from why D'Amato called himself one of Gojcaj's "friends" when he really wasn't, to a laundry list of D'Amato's convictions, which he admitted were too numerous to remember all the details of and which date back to the mid-1970s.

Despite some lively exchanges that flustered D'Amato at points -- during Sherman's rehash of his criminal history, D'Amato admitted witnessing a woman snatch someone's wallet, then following the woman and robbing the wallet from her, "of course" not to return it to its rightful owner, but to keep it for himself -- Judge
Paul Matasavage
returned after a brief recess to say there is probable cause to believe Gojcaj murdered Vulevic.

While acknowledging no direct evidence was presented linking Gojcaj to the crime, Matasavage said a "substantial" amount of circumstantial evidence presented indicates Gojcaj was responsible.

The case is now set to go to trial, though a specific time line for it to proceed has not been determined. Gojcaj will next return to court Jan. 9.

Though Matasavage lowered Gojcaj's bond to $2 million after the probable cause hearing, Sherman was unsure whether his family would be able to post it. One thing he was sure of, though, was that a trial is coming.